When I was a kid I loved Bonanza.
I had all the action figures and the horse. They were brilliant.
I also tried to eat and drink like the cowboys at Ponderosa.
Taking a shallow tin pie-dish from the kitchen I'd heat up some baked beans ['cos that's what I thought they ate] in a pan and slap 'em into the metal dish. Sprinkling loads of pepper on there for some reason, I'd dress up in my Western gear, complete with hat, waistcoat, sheriff's badge, belt and revolver, sit on a stool in the garden and eat my beans with a metal tablespoon.
Cowboys held their spoons in a certain way inside a clenched fist. I'd do the same and it lead to some interesting sweeping motions to pick my beans up. The important thing was to scrape the dish as much as possible, make as much noise as could be and when done chuck the plate and spoon clattering onto the ground.
The beans were good but what was missing was a coffee pot heating on a pot-bellied stove. The kind you always saw in Westerns. You know the one, it was permanently full of black coffee and always there when a thirsty cowboy needed a cup. Like the enameled pot, the cups were always metal too.
We didn't have any of this stuff at my folk's house. I did try to drink black coffee now and then with my beans but it tasted rank. I always wanted to pour half of it onto a campfire too! I wonder which coffee cowboys actually drank?
Did you ever eat cowboy beans readers?
From what I have read,the cowboys theselves didn't care much for their rations of beans and coffee, they were simply portable foods that kept them alive in the wild.I'm sure a few prairie cooks used some creativity and made a good meal out of a bad food supply.Try this,next time you make fresh chips, top 'em off with a ladlefull of those saucy cowboy beans,maybe melt some grated cheddar on top and dust it all with some dried chives or parsley.BTW,canned beans in sauce are a staple in my home,at a dollar a can,they are a great item to stock up on!
ReplyDeleteSounds great Bri. I shall try it. Its a cowboy version of cheesy beans by the looks of it, which I love. Yep, baked beans are a must and go brilliantly with bacon and eggs. the top brand is Heinz I would say, followed by HP and Branston here in the UK. There are lots of cheaper brands too like Coral I think.
DeleteHowdy Woodsy. Beans and coffee from the Chuck Wagon offered a tasty cliche, dished up for many a Western TV show. The trail-food trend was served with our Western toys as well. Timpo produced a scale Chuck Wagon to feed their colourful plastic cowboy and Indian. Marx 1/6 Johnny West and posse, were equipped with various plastic pots & pans for those arduous cattle drives across the living room carpet. Madelman joined the drive West with his own Western Wagon, horses and coffee pot. Ideal produced a versatile 4-in-1 Wagon to feed their Bonanza boys, back in the 1960s.
ReplyDeleteYep, I did scoff cowboy beans as a kid... Shuurrr were good days to be a cowboy, pard'ner :)
You know your Sixties Action Figures Tone! So many coffee pots! Its a wonder those plastic cattlemen got any work done! I remember chuck wagons, just not sure if I had one. I remember Chuck Norris too!
DeleteWhat am I talking about, Woodsy?... these TV tie-in Bonanza action figures were produced by American Character, not ideal. Adios amigo :)
ReplyDeleteThe Sheriff will be round!
DeleteHaha, as a kid i'd get my mum to use sausages and place them like horns into mash potatoe, it kinda resembled a cow pie that Desperate Dan would eat! Years later I played in a western swing band, the guitarist would wear his Ralph Lauren glasses on stage cos they had a little man on a horse on the side, you don't get more western than that!!!!- Mark J
ReplyDeleteNice one MJ, cow pie! Yes! Was Desperate Dan a cowboy? I've never even thought what he was meant to be! ha ha.
DeleteI do hope the aftermath of your meal wasn't as bad as the poor cowboys in "Blazing Saddles"!!!!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6dm9rN6oTs
DeleteIt usually was Mike! ha ha. Great film, a wind of change!
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